Page 3548 - Week 09 - Thursday, 23 August 2018
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who has had no compunction when it comes to sowing division and fostering racism in our community.
In January this year Mr Dutton said on 2GB that people in Melbourne:
…are scared to go out to restaurants of a night time because they are followed home by these gangs.
He said they were worried about home invasions and cars being stolen and that politicians:
…need to call it out for what it is. Of course it’s African gang violence.
On 4 August on the same radio station Mr Dutton talked about these African gang members in Melbourne who are running riot. Last week lawyer Nyadol Nyoun talked about the impact these types of comments have had on her; that it is the first time since she came to Australia as a refugee in 2005 that she remembers not feeling safe enough.
Of course, such comments from Mr Dutton have not started just this year. In November 2016 Mr Dutton singled out the Lebanese Muslim community. There are almost 200,000 Australians with Lebanese heritage, yet Mr Dutton chose to belittle the contributions of all these people—people like Canberra’s own Diana Abdel-Rahman—by holding them all accountable for the actions of apparently 22 people. He then doubled down on the Bolt Report saying that:
The reality is that Malcom Fraser did make mistakes in bringing some people in in the 1970s—
referring to Lebanese Muslims—
and we’re seeing that today.
He said in that this instance “we are talking about the Sudanese community”.
This man—the Liberals’ current scaremonger in chief—is in the running to be the leader of our country. This man would preference white South African farmers over children and families who have lived in refugee camps in Thailand Jordan and Uganda; and the ACT’s Liberal senator, the Zed in the A to Z of conservatism, has sided with a man who engages in the politics of fear and division. (Time expired.)
MR COE: Minister, how do you respond to calls that your foreign investment tax is xenophobic as it primarily targets Chinese investors?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I completely reject those calls, Madam Speaker.
ACT Health—data review
MR HANSON: My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Since 2012, there have been two Auditor-General’s reports and six consultants’ reports on
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